Or he’s trying to. For a “general public”, a “broad mass”, which corresponds to the target audience of the private TV stations and tabloid papers, this may hold true. Thanks to the internet, and YouTube & co. in particular, he can’t keep up his hard course that included many unfounded lawsuits against critics.

For instance the suit over 4 million US dollars in 1992 against book authors which was dismissed after two years with a (much smaller) punishment against Geller, which he had refused to pay, or a suit over 15 million against CSICOP (now CSI, Committee for Skeptical Inquiry) because of a statement by James Randi who said he had found a trick that Geller used to fool even respected scientists on a cornflake box.

(In German, you can read this and much more on the GWUP’s page, the German equivalent to CSICOP.)

Of course this doesn’t keep ProSieben from the brainwashing track of “all real powers, no tricks”, for which they rightfully got the (unfortunately too unknown) “Dodo of the Month” (German), an award for brainwashing of the people.

Powers and Energy

So is there a logical, scientific explanation for where your supernatural powers originate?

General reading tips (German): GWUP info page; and the blog with explanations and discussion already during the shows: The contestants’ tricks, explained in an easy way. English: CSI (ex-CSICOP).

(Note: If anyone knows good English sites, please let me know.)

Introductory remarks

Uri Geller was guest in last week’s Schmidt & Pocher – reports (German), among others, at Welt and RP. Oliver Pocher as “Morta Deller” poked quite some fun at the “mystic” magic tricks, and while Geller played along – e.g. with the typical overly enthusiastic summary –, according to his facial expression, he seemed anything but enthused… Well, main thing is to be present and talked about, he knows from years ago that even bad PR is good PR.

And again, I’d like to mention my article titled “Magic?” with some arguments and thoughs on magic, paranormal abilities, rational explanations and dangers of too uncritical thinkung…

As always, in general: These are all tricks, no supernatural powers! And we’ll see how good and entertaining today’s tricks are… today, all six who are left in this mentalist race perform, and thus the show is planned to last two and a half hour (including commercials).

The show starts with a warning board:

Translated: WARNING! Several live experiments of the following show are LIFE THREATENING! Only professional mentalists can execute these experiments.
NEVER TRY THIS AT HOME!

Life threat or no – calling the magic tricks “experiments” is ridiculous, though unfortunately fits in the scheme ProSieben and Geller are using in this show.

Loki and Helmut Schmidt had been reported smoking this week (no wonder) – and they have reserved two seats for them, with Geller promising that if they come, he’d guarantee to make them stop smoking. Uri raves about the many “normal” people that thanked him for their smokelessness.

The most frequently asked question is passed along: “Uri Geller, do you have supernatural powers?” – Answer: “Stephan, of course I have no supernatural powers”, plus an extreme wink in his eye. Meh. “Solved once and for all”? As if! Better had done without that rubbish.

And I hope I never need the help of the three chief physicians who attend the show to pretend credibility – called “the incorruptibles” by ProSieben. Ha! If the invitation to appear on TV and sit almost in the front is no bribe, then what is?

Introductory remarks

A few days ago, I wrote in this post titled “Magic?” about some thoughts and issues about magic, tricks, mentalists, paranormal abilities, rational explanations as well as dangers of too uncritical thinking, based on the report of a mentalist show attendant.

T-shirts with “Achad Shtaim Shalosh” are available in the ProSieben collection. And if you look at the large capital letters above each other – well, according to the new German orthography, “ASS” is indeed how to write the German word for “ace”, but…

The fourth show from 29 Jan 2008

As always, in general: These are all tricks, no supernatural powers! And we’ll see how good and entertaining today’s tricks are… today, the four “survivors” of the 2nd show performed again.

The smokers’ willpower is to be incited – Geller’s energy and the energy of all viewers is supposed to help. Especially children and adolescents shall help – “more later”. And Verena Wriedt in the telephone central is again happy about her big the big feedback with a few questionable cellphone videos of which Uri thinks they’re real.

Celebrities today: “The most successful female boxer of all times”, Regina Halmich, “Monrose” singer Senna Guemmour and ProSieben presenter Oli Unknown. Erm, unknown to me, I neither understood what he said nor do I want to rewind again. Ah, “Stars on Ice” host. So *google* Oliver Petszokat = Oli P. And three state attorneys from Cologne are lowering theit respectability on the second couch.

The show from 22 Jan 2008

The contestants’ contracts

Skeptiker (GWUP) and Stern report about the contracts – among other things, the contestants would originally have had to sign that they “have distinct mental and intuitive abilities, such as mind reading, telekinesis, sugestion or autosuggestion”. » More (in German) at Stern!

Alexander Hartmann:„In my show I do things that seem inexplicable to most people to create extraordinary moments. My goal is exclusively to offer good entertainment – not to claim or prove the possession of any supernatural abilities.“

Farid (by the way, are there any clearly laid out pages on MySpace?) writes: “Farid has already entertained his audience with professional magic when he was 10. […] A new and modern kind of magic.” Not really extensive, but for itself, it doesn’t sound bad. But if he really stands behind what the ProSieben website says that he has said: “I remember it clearly: as a little child, I was raised out of my bed one night like by ghost hand”, then:

Thorsten Strotmann Magic Entertainment: A “magician, magic artist, entertainer, infotainer, host”, who, on the one hand, presents himself quite businesslike, on the other hand unfortunately also writes: „Mental magic: thoughts are energy. […] As a child, he already recognized that he has a special gift and can grab energy and thoughs on another level. […] As well, he can influence energetically “charge” objects by the power of his mind.“

Leo Martin, “staged communication”:“[…] suggestive communication, perception deception and attention guiding. He creates illusions in the heads of the people and makes them do things that they wouldn’t have considered possible beforen.” Sounds rather psychological and magic-artistical than supernatural. ProSieben, by the way, writes “…have been able to before.” You can read this as a small but relevent difference towards more balderdash…

And I still think: In any case, a magician who doesn’t think too lowly of himself should not have applied for such a show in the first place.

Geller about his powers

On the one hand in an interview of the Berliner Kurier (all my translations):

“? So you do have telepathic abilities?
! Without a doubt.
[…]
I beleive I had been given an extraordinary paranormal energy.”

On the other habd in the Magische Welt (magic world), the independent German magazine for magic artists:

“I don’t claim anymore that I have supernatural powers. I am an entertainer, I want to do a good show. My entire character has changed.”

Now what?

The show from 15 Jan

At the beginning, press reactions are mentioned and shown in the background – only briefly and only positive ones, there must be a relation. And did Geller really say, “we don’t claim to have supernatural powers, we just want to enjoy it”? So really the new, more conservative line, if you will? (Cf. above.) Well, hopefully not the most interesting thing this evening…